Drug Boss Suspect Faces Contempt Charge

September 18, 1992|By EDMUND MAHONY; Courant Staff Writer

An East Haven man already accused of running a drug ring that plotted to corrupt a U.S. border guard, to build a bomb to blow up a suspected informant, and to kill two others, also has been charged with contempt of court.

The new charge against Aaron Northrup, 27, was brought by a federal grand jury in New Haven after Northup refused a U.S. District Court order to provide handwriting samples to be used in the marijuana and cocaine distribution case against him, U.S. Attorney Albert S. Dabrowski said.

The contempt charge is in a new indictment accusing Northrup of being the leader of a continuing criminal enterprise that bought "multi-pound" quantities of marijuana from New York, Arizona and Texas over the past five years for distribution in Connecticut.

For about one year, the indictment said, Northrup bought both cocaine and marijuana in New York City.

In 1991, the indictment charges, Northrup bribed a border guard working on the Texas border with Mexico, and for nearly a year shipped hundreds of pounds of marijuana into the United States. The marijuana was transported to Connecticut by couriers traveling on airlines and buses and by shipping packages by the postal service's Express Mail.

The indictment accuses Northrup of conspiring to murder to protect his organization. In 1992, it said, he plotted to kill a Milford police officer who previously had arrested him on drug charges, as well as a person Northrup suspected of being an informer in the case. Neither was killed.

He is also accused in the indictment of making a remote control bomb in 1989 to kill another person he suspected of tipping law enforcement authorities about his activities.

Northrup faces a minimum sentence of 20 years to life and a $5 million fine if he is convicted of the charges against him. He has been in jail in lieu of bond since his arrest in Texas on April 7